Program of Priestly Formation (Ascension)

162 PPF

Program of Priestly Formation

community.” 209 Seminarians should participate in parish activities and volunteer for service on a regular basis.

The seminary community and individual seminarians should appreciate the presence of a multicultural, multiethnic, and international community within the seminary. This environment provides a mutually enriching dimension to a seminary community and reflects the realities of pastoral life awaiting seminarians. This diversity should also help seminarians develop a quality of adaptability to varied pastoral settings in their future priestly ministry. THE CONTINUING EVALUATION OF SEMINARIANS The continuing evaluation of seminarians is linked to their formation as well as to the Church’s responsibility to discern vocations to priesthood as a gift from God. Since formation assumes that a seminarian will be growing both in God’s grace and in his free, human response to that grace, it is important that there be a process to note the benchmarks of that growth. In this way, the Church provides seminarians with encouragement to continue their formation and also with wisdom to identify ways in which that formation may take deeper root. The Church’s responsibility to discern the authenticity of vocations also implies some process whereby the Church, usually working through the seminary, scrutinizes the seminarian’s aptness and readiness to assume the responsibilities of ordained ministry. This ongoing evaluation of seminarians, then, affirms, strengthens, and fosters growth in formation while continuing the process of discernment. Norms for the Continuing Evaluation of Seminarians The seminary is responsible for the continuing evaluation of seminarians regarding their progress in priestly formation. The process

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209 Ratio Fundamentalis , no. 90. The bonds between formators and seminarians and among the seminari ans themselves are also important and “must be marked by a sense of fatherhood and fraternity.” Ratio Fundamentalis , no. 52.

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